Huckabee On 1992 AIDS Stance: "Safety First, Political Correctness Last"
Mike Huckabee has responded to reports of his stances on AIDS in 1992 — that he was for quarantining patients, opposed new federal money for research, and called homosexuality "an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk." Huckabee now claims that back in 1992, people still did not completely know how HIV/AIDS was spread.
"But looking back almost 20 years, my concern was the uncertain risk to the general population – if we got it wrong, many people would die needlessly," Huckabee said. "My concern was safety first, political correctness last."
Huckabee now also supports greater federal funding for HIV research. His full statement is available after the jump.
News Release: Presidential Candidate, Governor Mike Huckabee Statement on AIDS FundingDecember 08, 2007
Little Rock, AR - In the late 80’s and early 90’s we were still learning about the virus that causes AIDS. My concern, as a Senate candidate at the time, was to deal with the virus using the same public health protocols that medical science and public health professionals would use with any infectious disease.
Before a disease can be cured and contained we need to know exactly how and with near certainty what level of contact transmits the disease. There was still too much confusion about HIV transmission in those early years. Recall that in 1991, Kimberly Bergalis testified in front of Congress after contracting HIV from her dentist, and that summer a study was published showing that HIV was transmitted through breastmilk more easily than had been thought. But the federal government provided some guidelines: Also in 1991 the Centers for Disease Control recommended restrictions on the practice of HIV-positive health care workers.
At the time, there was widespread concern over modes of transmission and the possibility of epidemic. In the absence of conclusive data, my focus was on efforts to limit the exposure of the virus, following traditional medical practices developed from our public health experience and medical science in dealing with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.
We now know that the virus that causes AIDS is spread differently, with a lower level of contact than with TB. But looking back almost 20 years, my concern was the uncertain risk to the general population – if we got it wrong, many people would die needlessly. My concern was safety first, political correctness last.
My administration will be the first to have an overarching strategy for dealing with HIV and AIDS here in the United States, with a partnership between the public and private sectors that will provide necessary financing and a realistic path toward our goals. We must prevent new infections and provide more accessible care. We must do everything possible to transform the promise of a vaccine and a cure into reality.
Furthermore, I am proud that the United States has led the global battle against HIV/ AIDS. We have both a strategic interest as the world's only superpower and a moral obligation as the world's richest country to continue to do so until this scourge is a memory.
I supported the current Administration’s proposal to double our initial commitment from $15 billion to $30 billion over the next five years for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR has already done an extraordinary amount of good, by providing drugs for over a million people and care for four-and-a-half million people, but it expires in 2008 and must be reauthorized. I support an increase in our commitment to the Global Fund. Through PEPFAR and the Global Fund, we can do our fair share to meet the Millennium Development Goals we affirmed in 2000, which include universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care.
he's lying--ignorance was only true for the early and mid-80s--not the 90s.
he's a nasty piece of work.
December 8, 2007 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's also leading in a poll from Michigan today; though a new general election survey has Edwards beating him, but within the MOE.
December 8, 2007 8:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
There were still quite a few ignorant people in the early 1990s on this issue.
It looks like he's tempered his views somewhat - but the bigger question to ask given his current position is whether he now supports safer sex education and intervention programs (e.g., ensuring all sexually active people in disadvantaged or targeted groups have access to condoms...)
If his commitment to HIV/AIDS education is exclusively a bunch of moralizing from the pulpit about abstinence, he really hasn't changed his position much on this issue at all, and his call for increasing funding to AIDS isn't worth one cent.
Abstinence and faith-based messages are certainly part of a larger strategy of sexual education, but as research and any intelligent person knows, it's hardly sufficient - especially in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa where HIV is wiping out an entire generation, and for incredibly wrong reasons.
http://www.thewip.net/contributors/2007/07/will_sex_with_a_virgin_cure_hi.html
Shit like this makes Huckabee circa 1992 look like a freaking genius. The many misconceptions of HIV/AIDS among lay people in Africa must be targeted - and you don't do that by preaching at them.
Abstinence only education yields a bunch of horny uneducated folk making decisions based on ideology and folk tales. America's already proven that at home - for God's sake, don't export such shit.
December 8, 2007 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is no excuse for him claiming that in 1992 we didn't know how HIV was spread. While it may have been true that for the first few years of the epidemic in the early 1980s the transmission routes weren't clear, that had all been resolved scientifically long before Huckabee made his ignorant state in 1992 -- certainly by 1985 transmission routes and epidemiology of HIV were fairly well understood. Reagan's Surgeon General C. Everett Koop was quite outspoken about these issues -- long before Huckabee's 1992 statement.
Furthermore, it is ridiculous for the campaign to issue a statement in 2007 claiming that he was only advocating the "same public health protocols" as used for other diseases. There is no other disease (infectious or otherwise) where public health policy calls for quarantining those with the disease. He is trying to hide behind public health to justify his past promotion of the basest of prejudices against people living with HIV/AIDS and those at risk for infection. Homophobia, racism, hatred of drug users, and shame/fear of sexuality are what drove HIV stigma and discrimination -- both in 1992 and continuing through today.
No one who advocated such extreme measures more than 10 years into the HIV/AIDS epidemic should be let off the hook for such hate-filled statements in his political record.
December 8, 2007 8:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
When I started internship in 1981, we did not even know the name "HIV." By the time I finished training in 1984, we knew it was a virus, and knew how it was spread. For Huckabee to claim that the mode of transmission was unknown in 1992 is flat out wrong, and shows either incredible ignorance in 1992, or bald-faced lying now.
He correctly notes guidelines and restrictions by the CDC at the time - none of which involved quarantine, or anything even close.
December 8, 2007 8:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's see, superstition-fueled dogmatic ignorance of science - pandering to basest emotions - lying to cover up misdeeds - irrational hatred of political rivals - ignorance of major government policies and developments -nice guy image covering a stubborn streak and a short fuse
Yeah, conservative fundies gotta love this guy. He's just like the one they have in the White House right now.
December 8, 2007 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fix the numbers!
December 8, 2007 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can see quarantining people for a short period of time in some sort of outbreak. Here, quarantining would have meant sending gay people to camps or some other sort of quarantine facilities for years - decades, even. It was well known by the mid to late 1980s that HIV could exist for as long as 11 years inside a patient before he would show symptoms of AIDS. The idea of quarantining tens of thousands of people (not coincidentally primarily gay men) for years and decades should send shivers down anyone's spine.
December 8, 2007 9:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
A quarantine would have been completely ineffective then and now. People are infected for years before it first shows up. That was known then. And it has nothing to do with the method of transmission. Huckabee appears to be as ignorant today as he was back in 1992.
December 8, 2007 10:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
What I think this speaks to is that many religious conservatives in the 80s jumped on the notion that AIDS was a "gay disease" and was punishment from on-high for "sinful" behavior, and some continued to view the disease in terms of that stigma well after the facts about the disease became scientifically and generally well-known.
I think that this stigma is what caused someone like Huckabee to excessively fear the disease and dehumanize its sufferers in 1992, and even for "Doctor" Bill Frist to be unsure a few years ago whether AIDS could be spread by tears or sweat. In either case, any intelligent member of American society would have known better if they weren't blinded by hate or ignorance or both.
December 8, 2007 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's the prevaricating on every level that galls me. 1992 was 15 years ago, so it's as much "just over a decade" as it is "almost 20 years ago." They lie about EVERYTHING.
December 9, 2007 12:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
He was against it before he was for it.
December 9, 2007 2:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I would expect this "new" story to have an unexpected effect on Huckabees support. It might just add to his credentials with the evangelicals; I take that back it WILL add to his credentials.
The Falwell crowd will rally around him even more. I expect Dobson will soften a bit and begin to say some positive things about Huckabee.
This feeds the beast so to speak. He will now surely win Iowa, and most likely South Carolina too.
December 9, 2007 2:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
what a scumbag. he's not only a liar, he's also stupid and full of hate. the republicans deserve to have the huckster as their candidate.
December 9, 2007 2:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yup. They can adopt the “Four More Years” chant as their campaign slogan.
December 9, 2007 2:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
For those who were alive during the period in question, it is worth remembering that Ryan White -- the Indiana teenager who contracted HIV through a tainted blood transfusion -- was diagnosed in 1984.
I was in public school during this period, and it was a big controversy when Ryan wanted to return to his school in 1985. This story was covered nationally, and there was a lot of discussion and explanation about modes of transmission at this time.
Huckabee says that seven years later we still didn't know?
December 9, 2007 6:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Each new day brings a new regret for the sheep that anointed this clown the frontrunner. Huckabee tries to deflect criticism by whining about the phantom political correctness police and lying about the awareness of AIDS in 1992. Pathetic.
December 9, 2007 9:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
What the hell is it about Hope, Arkansas, that it produced two of the most glib liars on the planet.
Huckabee claims that he wanted to roundup and isolate those that were infected because he was concerned about the "plague" spreading(Notice how he slipped in the biblical word; plague. He knew that was code for God was punishing those who were infected.)
Now here is where Huckabee gets revealed; If he truly was concerned about the general health protection of all people, why did he call for the Government to not make any further efforts to find new treatments and a cure for HIV.
Huckabee is just another false prophet.
True Christians would not be so heartless toward fellow human beings.
December 9, 2007 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know christians and he ain't no christian. He is just basically another neo-nazi thug that will twist anything to fit his agenda of fear and hate to stay in power. Can anyone believe that the "bible" stands for this or anything else the christian fundies stand for????? I don't think so.
December 9, 2007 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Many people were still very ignorant about Aids in 1992 and we all know that it largely had to do with homosexuality. The people who attack Huckabee over this are simply amoral.
December 9, 2007 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
A new wave of early-state polls was just released by Mason-Dixon and it has Huckabee on fire and Clinton in big big trouble in ALL three early states!
December 9, 2007 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now I'd support detention camps for lying Republican scumbags... oh wait, they've already built them: federal prisons.
My bad.
December 9, 2007 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks to Terje and EL, and I'd add that even (most) laypeople understood the nature of HIV transmission pretty well by the mid-1980s: if something can kill you, you pay attention to the science. And Dr. Koop did his job.
Steve, you're right that "many people" were still ignorant in 1992. No doubt many people are still ignorant today; "many people" are hazy about the most basic science like why summer is hotter than winter. But, um, Steve, the person you choose as a governor or a president should be *better* informed on challenging questions than the average voter, don't you think? They should *master* an issue before proposing drastic measures, perhaps? Otherwise they might conceivably waste the taxpayers' money in harebrained schemes, right?
Anyway, I'd still like to believe that Huckabee has evolved as a politician since 1992 and that the compassion and good sense that he occasionally articulates are genuine. But what we see is consistent with hardline social views sugar-coated with an emollient, sunny personality. (Most of the Baptist preachers I met growing up in the South were like this). It would be good to hear from Arkansans about his time as governor.
December 9, 2007 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
yikes
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7270.html
worse than I thought.
December 9, 2007 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Then Huckabee won't mind if I get a little non-PC here and criticize his religion. His comments from 20 years ago show nothing more than that he was deluded by the bigotry and fundamentalism of his Christian dogmas.
December 9, 2007 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
even calling for quarantine was discarded and old news among insane rightwingers by 92--wasn't it George Will who had advocated for that back in the mid-80s?
December 9, 2007 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
one more thing---wasn't it in 1992 that Mary Fisher--HIV+ and Republican--spoke at the Republican convention?
December 9, 2007 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Frank Rich has a kinder take today. Credit where it's due.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/opinion/09rich.html?ref=opinion
Unlike Rudy-Romney, Mr. Huckabee showed up for the PBS presidential debate held at the historically black Morgan State University in September. Afterward, he met Cornel West, an Obama supporter who deeply disagrees with Mr. Huckabee about abortion and much else. I asked Dr. West for his take last week. After effusively praising Mr. Huckabee as unique among the G.O.P. contenders, Dr. West said: “I told him, ‘You are for real.’ Black voters in Arkansas aren’t stupid. They know he’s sincere about fighting racism and poverty.”
December 9, 2007 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
In 1992, the first protease inhibitors were still in Phase I and II clinical trials. FDA-approved antiviral protocols to treat HIV such as AZT and alpha interferon were NOT widely available for most AIDS patients. As hard as it may seem to some of you, many members of the general public still harbored misconceptions and legitimate fears concerning possible transmission.
When my orthodontist died of AIDS in 1990, the local health department contacted all of his patients and staff to be tested for HIV. Were most of them terrified? Damn right, they were! When I had major surgery in 1992, my hospital strongly encouraged me to bank my own blood. Wonder why? Back then, the American Red Cross was involved in a number of high-profile scandals in the US and Canada concerning HIV- and hepatitis C-tainted blood products. Thousands of recipients were infected including almost all of the hemophiliacs in the US. Most of the infected hemophiliacs died. In 1992, AIDS was a death sentence. In 2007, it's still a death sentence...not that anyone seems to be care.
Sorry Terje, you're wrong. Quarantines were and continue to be used in the US to prevent the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Back in the day, AIDS activists protested against basic notification programs because of the "stigma" attached to HIV infection. Individuals who believed that the same policies used to control and prevent other sexually transmitted diseases should apply to HIV were roundly denounced as bigots. Problem is, some of them were right. People, gay and straight, continued to engage in high risk sexual behavior and the incidence of HIV infection still continues to rise exponentially. Here's the cost of political correctness:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6D7133DF935A25756C0A96E948260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN04373052
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN0134528720071201?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews
December 9, 2007 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
People knew how HIV was spread in 1992. Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, and assuming that he really DIDN'T understand how HIV was actually spread, it shows a disgusting amount of willful ignorance on his part, and a willingness to make policy despite not knowing jack about what he was talking about.
He has no excuse for his statement.
December 9, 2007 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mean.Jean
Yeah, right.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/11/30/aids_study_knowledge_yields_better_policy/1478/
http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/sci_data/surveys/nhis/type_txt/aids92.asp
December 10, 2007 8:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
We would not be talking about this at all is Chuck Norris had not threatened to kick in the head every American who did not vote for Huckabee's diet plan.
Damn you Norris for using your powers for EE-val!
December 10, 2007 9:22 AM | Reply | Permalink